Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding 3)

Ramsey was upstairs, working in his office. He had been working from home more frequently lately. She didn’t know if he got more work done here or if he just liked being away from the hospital. She suspected he would tell her that it was because he liked being close to her. The thought made her smile.

“Sherri called,” Ramsey said, appearing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Why does she always call you?” Lexi demanded. She stopped mid-stride.

“Because you never answer your phone.”

Lexi marched over to her phone and pressed the button to light it up. “She didn’t call me.”

“Almost four months of you not answering her phone calls when she calls has led her to call me first,” Ramsey explained.

“I don’t avoid her calls or anything.”

“No one said you did, dear.”

“Well, what did she want?” Lexi asked.

“Just checking in mostly since we’re seven months out. She asked if we had selected a florist and said she would email me some recommendations. She asked how you were doing with picking out a dress.”

“Ugh! Terrible. None of them are right.”

Ramsey laughed. “I know. You told me. She said that should be your number one priority right now.”

“It is. Chyna wants to use a custom designer, but I don’t need anything that extravagant. I’m only going to be wearing it once.”

“That’s right you are,” Ramsey said, walking toward her and scooping her up.

“Hey, put me down!” she cried.

He carried her in his arms, up the stairs, and into their bedroom.

“You are thinking way too hard about something that doesn’t concern you,” he said, tossing her lightly onto the bed.

She giggled as she landed in the middle of the down comforter. “I’m not thinking about anything but this bed right now.” She spread out her fingers and ran them down the soft fabric.

“Where was your mind at before I carried you up to bed?” he asked, kicking off his shoes and crawling up next to her.

Lexi shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Tell me.” His lips planted a kiss on her hip, and his fingers ran down her thigh.

“It’s nothing. Really.”

He moved farther up, kissing her side and her stomach. One arm wrapped around her waist, pressing her body against him.

“Don’t make me tickle the answers out of you. It’s not beneath me.”

Lexi scrunched up her nose at him and poked him in the side. “Don’t be a jerk.” She couldn’t hold back her smile.

“Oh yeah, that’s me. I’m the biggest jerk you’ve ever met. How can you even stand me?” Ramsey asked, rolling his bright green eyes.

“Clearly, I can’t. What are you doing in my bed anyway?”

“Your bed?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “Since when is this your bed?”

“Oh, I don’t know? Maybe the last two years,” she said. She couldn’t keep the smirk off her face.

“And who has been sharing this bed with you for the last two years?” His lips landed on her palm, and then slowly, tenderly, he ran kisses up her arm.

“I might have allowed you to sleep in my bed—”

Ramsey stopped at her shoulder and stared up at her. “As long as I’m sharing it with you, then it can be yours.”

Lexi lazily smiled back at him. Sometimes, he was so romantic.

“Doesn’t exempt you from telling me what you were thinking about downstairs,” he said slyly.

She groaned. “Must you know?”

“Must you try to evade me?”

“Jack and Bekah are in mediation today,” she whispered, not taking her eyes from him.

It was Ramsey’s turn to groan. He heavily rested his forehead on her shoulder. “I thought you were going to stay out of their business.”

“Jack is my friend. He’s always been there for me when I needed him. I feel like a bad friend if I’m not there for him now,” she said, trying to explain but knowing it was futile.

“I know things between you and Jack have changed and that you’re his friend. I know all of that. I’ve been really damn accepting of it all, considering your past…”

Lexi cringed. That was one of the moments she felt like she was dying from her mistakes rather than living with them.

“The last thing I want is for you to get tangled up in this,” he said, squeezing her hand. “You understand, right?”

Lexi shrugged and stared up at the ceiling. From her perspective, she was already tangled up in what was going on. She was always tangled up in something with Jack, and this was no different. It wasn’t like she had taken his case on or anything. She was just being the supportive friend he needed. She didn’t think it was asking too much.

“Why do you have to be involved with this? Make me see your point,” he said.

He could probably see her shutting down and closing off. She had never liked being told what to do.

Lexi observed the motion of the fan for a few seconds before responding. “I’m not sure what to say that I haven’t said before. I’ve known Jack since I was eighteen years old. Yes, our relationship has changed since that point, and it should. We’re older, and we’ve grown up. Sometimes, I really hated him, and sometimes, I really loved him. It was hot and cold—no, burning and freezing. It was two extremes that I thought we would never be able to control, never be able to figure out. Instead, we just crashed into catastrophe over and over again,” Lexi explained.

She wanted to say so much more, but she didn’t know how to explain something that hardly made sense to her.

“When he married your sister, that was the end for me. I was just over everything. I didn’t even want to be me anymore.”

“I remember how it was,” Ramsey responded.

Lexi smiled softly. “I was an ass to Jack at the D-Bags concert. But he said something that night that he has actually held to the past two years. He told me that all he wanted was for me to be happy. Against my better judgment, I let him try to be my friend. It’s hard to let go of someone who has always been there,” she whispered.

She rolled over on the bed to face Ramsey, and something in his expression told her that he understood that much at least.

“The divorce is the culmination of every terrible thing Jack could ever think. This is probably his biggest fear. Bekah is destroying him, and he doesn’t have anyone.”